By IDA

 - May 19, 2020

During April and May 2020, the International Disability Alliance and its member organizations, with the technical support of the Center for Inclusive Policy, held a series of webinars to understand how disability-inclusive social protection schemes can respond to the COVID 19 outbreak worldwide, its impact and measures being taken in countries. 

Members of IDA members, including Bridge CRPD-SDGs Alumni, as well as IDDC members and UN partners showed a significant interest for the webinars, with a total number of 207 registered people from 40 countries, of which 46% were women. There were several representatives from the underrepresented groups, such as persons with intellectual disabilities, deafblind people, persons with psychosocial disability and people with cerebral palsy.  

The webinars are organized in partnership with Inclusive Futures as well as the International Labour Organization and UNICEF within the framework of  the UNPRPD inclusive social protection initiative, and were aimed towards organizations of persons with disabilities (DPOs) including members of IDA member organizations, Bridge CRPD-SDGs Alumni and partners.  

The webinars were facilitated in 11 different National Sign Languages, International Sign and through voice over interpretation. In addition, live captioning was provided in English and French, with a test organized the day before for newcomers on the GoToMeeting platform.

Read further below. Any questions or comments, contact bridge-regional-fellow [at] ida-secretariat.org

Newsletter

Disability inclusive social protection response to COVID-19: regional webinar series

 The COVID-19 crisis is a turning point. It has revealed once again the devastating consequences of systemic shocks for societies and economies in the absence of universal and adequate social protection.” International Labour Organization. 

Across countries, persons with disabilities are more likely to be poor and unemployed, to have less access to education and economic opportunities and to face catastrophic health expenditures. Their households often have to spend more than those without disabilities to reach the same standard of living because of disability-related costs. Persons with disabilities also tend to earn less income due to discrimination in education and employment. Household income is also impacted as often, in the absence of personal assistance programs, family members may have to reduce or stop work to provide care and support.  

The COVID 19 has magnified these inequalities and barriers. DPOs have a critical role to play in advocating for  an inclusive social protection is needed to prevent further marginalization and impoverishment or persons with disabilities and their families.

During April and May 2020, the International Disability Alliance and its member organizations, with the technical support of the Center for Inclusive Policy, held a series of webinars to understand how disability-inclusive social protection schemes can respond to the COVID 19 outbreak worldwide, its impact and measures being taken in countries. The webinars are organized in partnership with Inclusive Futures as well as the International Labour Organization and UNICEF within the framework of  the UNPRPD inclusive social protection initiative, and were aimed towards organizations of persons with disabilities (DPOs) including members of IDA member organizations, Bridge CRPD-SDGs Alumni and partners.

Overall, most participants across the 3 regions highlighted the issues related to inaccessible information and lack of attention for specific requirements of persons with disabilities. They reflected on the weaknesses of their country social protection systems which undermine state response capacity, with only a few of them reporting having disability support allowance and publicly funded support services.

The few countries that have such instruments in place have provided faster relief but there are concerns with regards to effective coverage and level of support provided.

Evaluating the inclusion and receptiveness of social protection to persons with disabilities is crucial not just in planning these emergency responses but also towards “building back better”. Persons with disabilities are concerned primarily for their safety and health now, but also for what a post lockdown world and the economic recession will mean.

“Many people are losing employment opportunities. They are losing, being cut off as a result of reducing expense, but what does this mean for Persons with Disabilities who are struggling to get employment… remember they are the last people to hire and first people to be fired.” Participant from Uganda

Webinar Format

All webinars were organized on the GoToMeeting platform. Four webinars were organized for three regions – Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa (English & French).

Bridge CRPD-SDGs Alumni, IDDC members and UN partners showed a significant interest for the webinars, with a total number of 207 registered people from 40 countries, of which 46% were women. There were several representatives from the underrepresented groups, such as persons with intellectual disabilities, deafblind people, persons with psychosocial disability and people with cerebral palsy. The webinars were facilitated in 11 different National Sign Languages, International Sign and through voice over interpretation. In addition, live captioning was provided in English and French, with a test organized the day before for newcomers on the GoToMeeting platform.

Webinars began with a welcoming from the regional IDA member followed by an introduction by the representative of the IDA secretariat on the joint global actions by IDA and IDDC organized under two working-groups: advocacy and human rights monitoring, and communication and media outreach. 

This was followed by a presentation by Alexandre Côte of the Centre for Inclusive Policy on social protection and persons with disabilities, both in terms of a general overview of social protection and the context of Article 28 of the CRPD and why this discussion is crucial looking at the impact of social protection or lack thereof on persons with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The participants were then invited to provide their reflections on their country situation on 6 parameters related to social protection:

  1.  Information accessibility
  2.  Cash transfer
  3.  In-kind support such as food package, medicines
  4.  Support services
  5.  Coverage of health care costs
  6.  How government has used disability/equal opportunities cards

Webinar 1: South East Asia, led by the ASEAN Disability Forum, 21 April 2020

Participation

This webinar had 22 participants including DPO participants from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, many of whom were alumni of the Bridge CRPD-SDGs training initiative. Captioning, international sign interpretation as well as national sign interpretation in Malaysian Sign Language was provided to facilitate participation.

Highlights

“We must consider intersectionalities which make people especially vulnerable in the present situation”. Webinar participant

Lim Puay Tiak, Chairperson of the ASEAN Disability Forum, introduced the workshop and welcomed the attendees. Stephanie Choo, from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), made a short presentation on the 6 recommendations that UNESCAP has made in terms of policy measures.

In the Asia-Pacific region, persons with disabilities see only 28% social protection coverage, with healthcare coverage being as low as 4.3%. 

Respondents reflected on the insufficiency of data, the low levels of social protection coverage for persons with disabilities, the issues with obtaining disability certification in the present situations, and the reliance on informal and institutional support as opposed to formal systems of support in the region. Some participants spoke about the positive measures being put in place for persons with disabilities and good practices like cash transfers, surveys and needs assessments and new schemes. Participants also noted that in respect of a few countries, they were unable to get any information or data e.g. Myanmar or Cambodia. 

Webinar 2: Africa, English speaking, led by ADF, 5 May 2020

Participation

This webinar saw 59 registered participants. The majority were representatives of organizations of disabled persons from The Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. There were also 10 participants from IDDC and IDA member organizations operating at the regional and global level. Participants received the support of live captioning, international sign interpretation, and interpretation in 5 national sign languages.  

For ADF, Robinah Alambuya presented the opening remarks and welcome, and Ekaete Judith Umoh moderated the session.

Highlights

"I would like to congratulate colleagues from Africa because your continent has been the most active in reaching out, despite all the barriers to share their stories. And I have to say that most of the stories that we have are not about the virus itself, are about social and economic impact of the virus. And it's very self-explanatory why this Webinar is so important today." Elham Youssefian, International Disability Alliance

Social protection coverage of persons with disabilities is just about 6% in sub-Saharan Africa. Participants shared stories on the impact of the lack of access to information on persons with disabilities who have even been assaulted for being out of their house due to total lack of accessible information, in particular to underrepresented groups such as deaf, deafblind, autistic people and people with intellectual disabilities.

Participants shared the fear of unemployment of persons with disabilities now that industry and the economy are under threat as well as the barriers in accessing medical supplies, rehabilitation services and the impact of price increase of essentials. They highlighted the absence or limitation of social protection schemes. They also reflected on the rural-urban divide when it came to accessing services for persons with disabilities and the lack of receptiveness towards the diversity of persons with disabilities. They also shared the evolving role DPOs were playing in the crisis. In some cases, their staff and their data on their members were being used to support Government efforts on the outreach of essential services.

Webinar 3: South Asia, supported by TCI Asia Pacific, 7 May 2020

Participation

The Webinar saw extensive participation from Bridge CRPD-SDGs Alumni, including from the ongoing Bridge cycle in South Asia. There were also participants from the IDA’s Training of Trainers, Advocates and Leaders (ToTAL) that took place in India in 2012. In total, 57 participants registered for the webinar from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. To facilitate the full participation of the group, international sign interpreters, national sign language interpreters (Indian and Nepali), voice over interpreters and captioners were also engaged. IDDC member staff from Sightsavers and CBM also participated.

Highlights

In addition to the standard agenda, Meenakshi Balasubramanian, a fellow with the Centre for Inclusive Policy and Bridge CRPD-SDGs facilitator, made a brief presentation of a paper on an initial analysis of the social protection response to COVID-19 crisis for persons with disabilities in India. This report was supported by CIP and was contributed to by DPOs all over the country. Meenakshi highlighted that in India, disability benefits were only open to those in the working-age group  (18 to 60) and even within this, the coverage of the Union social protection scheme for persons with disabilities used for COVID-19 response extended to only 7.6% of persons with disabilities in this age group. Children with disabilities received no specific benefits. The value of the disability benefit was not enough to cover basic consumption and disability-related extra costs.

“If you see the media channels, these days, they are all, all the time…pressurizing the COVID 19 information which is creating more and more anxiety for people with psychosocial disabilities, so, there must be some clear, up to date information for people with psychosocial disabilities.” Webinar participant

Participants shared some of the achievements with regard to information accessibility (sign language interpretation of Minister speeches) but other gaps, regarding accessibility of day to day information around the coronavirus in sign language, easy read formats, screen reader accessibility of documents, messaging and rumours that were causing distress for persons with psychosocial disability. While most countries except Pakistan have some form of disability benefits, there are issues of coverage, adequacy as well as accessibility.  With regard to cash transfers, persons with disabilities particularly those with visual impairment faced discrimination in using the banking facilities, like ATMs.

Several participants spoke about the role of charitable foundations and DPOs in supporting persons with disabilities in extreme states of poverty during this crisis with the failure of the government to recognize and address these needs.

Webinar 4: Africa, French-speaking, led by ADF, 13 May 2020

Participation

The webinar saw extensive participation from Bridge Alumni of the region among a total of 69 registered participants, including IDDC members like HI and FAIRMED. The countries represented were Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo. 

To facilitate the full participation of participants, national sign interpretation was organized in three national sign languages. French language captioning was also provided. Since many participants were new to the concept of webinars, a trial session was organized the previous evening for those who needed that support. 

Highlights

Idriss Maiga, President of the African Disability Forum, welcomed all the participants and highlighted the importance of the meeting and discussion that was to follow.

Some countries have laws mandating social protection but without concrete measures for persons with disabilities. Some discussed the difficulties arising on account of the split persons with disabilities experienced between the ministry of social justice and the ministry of health. Others shared what their own organizations were doing to raise resources to support their members in times of need. Most highlighted the gaps in existing social protection systems and the importance to advocate for developing disability support schemes.

“...we observed that each time people talk about COVID - 19 or about vulnerability, nobody mentions persons with disabilities. In order to draw on people’s attention, I wrote a text to our national newspaper and I included a very shocking headline, which was “COVID‑19 social and cultural impact on persons with disabilities in total disarray”. The Minister saw the news and called our organization to ask why people with disabilities are publishing the news that they are in disarray? But, then, this allowed us to be taken into consideration by their ministry as they got back to us to express our requirements.” Webinar participant (translated from French)

Way forward

The International Disability Alliance, in partnership with CIP and UNPRPD, is seeking to produce a number of regional or country-based reports on social protection and persons with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. These webinars are meant to be a first step towards this reporting process. These reports can, in turn, be used as tools for advocacy for persons with disabilities with local governments, UN Programmes and specialized agencies such as ILO and the World Bank, and also monitoring mechanisms, international platforms and fora like the High-level Political Forum and the CRPD Committee.

For further information contact bridge-regional-fellow [at] ida-secretariat.org

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